4 Foreigners Face Chinese Execution
It’s been reported in Hong Kong that 4 more foreigners are facing execution in China due to heroin smuggling. This news comes on the heels of China and Britain clashing over a Briton being found guilty and executed on Tuesday for the same offense.
The 4 foreigners are said to be among 9 people arrested for more than 144.5kg (318.6lbs.) of heroin found in Shenzhen by police in August. Reports say that they may face the most extreme penalty under Chinese law. The nationality of the 4 suspects hasn’t been specified, but they were arrested in September when detectives discovered and then tracked a drug shipment from Pakistan to China. There were about 289 bags of high-grade heroin hidden in bales of cotton that police dogs uncovered after a tip-off. Authorities waited for the smugglers at a Guangzhou warehouse.
This news was only uncovered after Akmal Shaikh, a British national, was executed by Chinese authorities on Tuesday for smuggling heroin. He was arrested in 2007 for 4kg of heroin and had appealed his case numerous times, but there has been a great row started over the whole thing, with Britain blaming China for not upholding the suspect’s full rights. He was also said to be mentally ill, for which they ruled insufficient evidence, yet didn’t even conduct a metal assessment of their own.
Chinese authorities are revealing this new case to counter criticism over this execution. The country has tough penalties against drug smuggling, yet it’s located close to some of the biggest opium-production areas in the world.